In the manufacture of cigarette type smoking products, the most modern plants now have completely automated systems where the raw products are fed in and the final packaged products are cartoned for shipment. In addition to relative high initial equipment and installation cost, one of the big disadvantages of completely automatic systems is that when any portion malfunctions, the entire line must be shut down.
In view of the above, many cigarette manufacturers are still using the semi-automated manufacturing systems which have been in use for many years. These latter systems have generally included an automatic cigarette manufacturing machine and a separate automatic packaging machine so if one becomes in-operative, the other can continue to run. The cigarettes are transferred between the two systems by removing them from the cigarette manufacturing machine and placing them in a relatively large, thin, traylike magazine having a width the approximately length of a cigarette. A closure or lid is then placed on the open side of the tray and the same is transferred to the packaging machine where it acts as a magazine to feed the cigarettes.
Inherently in the transfer of the magazine trays, they are banged around, dropped and otherwise abused by the semi-skilled and unskilled labor hired to handle the same. The most abusive handling occurs during the return of the empty magazine trays from the package machine to the manufacture machine where blows to the unsupported center portion of the lid will bend the same inwardly causing the tray's post or cleat like securing means to become disengaged from the bracket portion of the lid. In an earlier attempt to overcome the problem of unintentional separation between the tray and the lid, a flat plate-like head was formed on the end of the pins. This innovation proved to be some improvement although the lid brackets still tend to become bent outwardly so they were difficult to engage and disengage because of binding against the plate-like head. Additionally, the cost of producing the enlarged headed pins increases the cost of the trays because they cannot be readily mass produced in that configuration.